Earth Equity News

Amid Economic Crisis, Wind Power Spins More Slowly. By Mark Clayton, SCMonitor, October 28, 2008. "Until this fall, plowing billions into new wind farms from North Dakota to Texas to California had been the epitome of renewable-energy investing for hedge funds and big banks. But even though the US may still be the 'Saudi Arabia of wind power,' tapping that resource will be far tougher. 'We all know that with the impact of the credit crisis on the economy, there's no way that this sector will not also be hurt,' Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association told reporters during a teleconference call last week. With the cost of capital rising and access to credit more difficult, 'eventually that's going to have an impact on our members' ability to do business,' he says. Wind power used to have the breeze at its back. This year it is the second-fastest growing source of electricity generation after natural gas. It's also winding up a banner year of building about 7,500 megawatts of new generating capacity-- about 50 percent more than 2007. And wind energy seemed set to soar, buoyed by recent renewal of a vital production tax credit (PTC) from Congress. As recently as this summer, the cost of power from new wind farm was 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour, cheaper than power from a new gas-fired power plant (9 cents) or a new nuclear plant (9.8 cents). Only coal, at about 6 cents for kilowatt hour, was cheaper, according to Emerging Energy Research, a Cambridge, Mass.-based market research firm. But prospects for banner growth in 2009 have ebbed. Falling prices for natural gas, transmission bottlenecks, and other costs have undermined wind power. Rising steel costs alone have pushed up the price of building one megawatt of wind power about 30 percent."